Friday, January 16, 2009

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running - post III

As he gets nearer to his latest challenge of running the New York marathon Murakami looks back over some of his more extreme moments running.

One of them was a 64 mile race that took it out of him both physically and mentally and pushed him into a depression he tagged the ‘runner’s blues’. That downturn lasted for a long time and he indicates that it only really started to shift as he geared up for the NYC marathon.

In between the reminiscing about marathons and training sessions of the past he talks some more about the novelists craft and the parallels between the disciplines of running everyday and writing – focus and stamina.

Although this is interesting stuff it is hard not to be envious of his lifestyle, which clearly has time to allow him to trot off for hours on end running as well as having the space to sit down and think. I don’t seem to have any time to do anything and certainly don’t have a ‘creative space’ that would help me focus.

But still that is just harping on and the reply I guess Murakami would give is that each of us has to find their way. I haven’t found mine yet and he has clearly found his. If that is the lesson from this book then it has been worth reading it this week.